Sincere Friendship
Posted on Monday, 19 December 2016
SINCERE FRIENDSHIP
By Apolinario Villalobos
The best way to realize or put into
practice our purpose in life is by befriending the needy…reaching out to them.
The needy do not need millions or thousands or hundreds of pesos. All they need
are handfuls of rice, few pieces of coins, old but still wearable clothes,
slippers, and so many other things that most of us just throw away or leave to
rot in the backyard or stockroom.
But many people WOULD RATHER befriend
affluent or influential people who are friends of their friends, friends of
these friends, still friends of these friends, and so on. They exert all
efforts to find connections that they can use to realize their selfish motive
of riding on the fame or worse, benefit from the financial affluence of other
people. Sometimes this happens during the christening of children. Some parents
endeavor to include influential people in the long list of godparents, for
obvious reasons already mentioned, other than what is expected of them as
“second parents” of the godchildren. Along this line, some couples, also, ask
friends who know mayors or barangay chairmen or other local officials to stand
as sponsors during their wedding, for the same aforementioned reason. In other
words, many would like to befriend people for selfish motives, most especially,
for prestige and financial security.
In this regard, even the mass weddings
sponsored by mayors, and which are viewed by many as done with sincerity, are
in fact used as a political tool. For delicadeza’s sake, the mayor could have
just spent for the snacks and pay the honorarium of the conducting priest or
pastor or minister, AND ASSIGN ANY OF HIS NON-POLITICAL STAFF TO STAND AS SPONSOR,
PERHAPS, THE REGISTER OF DEEDS, CHIEF OF THE REVENUE OFFICE, ETC. What happens
is that, when election time comes, these “inaanak” become the campaigners for
their “ninong mayor”…a puking reality! Truth is, there is not even a slight
trace of sincere friendship out of the said “connection”, as several days after
the ceremony, the “ninong mayor” may not even remember the names of those for
whom he stood as “ninong”. This is about “mass wedding”, not the wedding of
people who are personal acquaintances of the mayor. This happens most often in
slum areas and barangays or remote villages and towns. So, there’s your
“friendly” mayor just because he is sponsoring “mass wedding” using people’s
money!
Prestige and security in life can be
possibly achieved even without employing make-believe friendship with prominent
personalities. True friendship with a REAL PURPOSE should be initiated by a
person with utmost sincerity without any taint of selfishness. On the other
hand, those who belong to the lower stratum of society should never dream of
gaining the friendship of people who belong to the upper, and whom they do not
know personally. One should endeavor to earn recognition instead of gaining it
through connections. To call people who do not know you personally as “friends”
is embarrassing enough. In plain language it is “name dropping”. It should also
be noted that friendship is supposed to be a “two-way” relationship…with
sincerity from both sides.
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